Effects of academic press releases on research impact indicators and authors' research performance Proposta

• Grant number: 24/18655-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: February 29, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Sergio Luiz Monteiro Salles Filho
• Grantee: Mariana Bochichi Hafiz
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências (IG). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Mass media have traditionally been used to communicate science to the public and maintain science's social legitimacy. Studies on the growing closeness between science and the media highlight how the system of science orients itself to the parameters of the press and how this affects the production of scientific knowledge. Less attention is paid to mediators in the production of science news: science news agencies and the content they publish - press releases about scientific publications. Considering the shrinking of newsrooms and the lack of trained, designated science journalists working in science reporting, science news agencies help enable the production of science news. Despite this, these agencies' effects on the production of scientific knowledge have yet to be demonstrated. To address this gap, the herein study aims to analyze the effects of anticipating scientific publications to journalists via news agencies on reported articles' impact indicators and on authors research practice. We will conduct a scoping review on the topic followed by a case study of a Brazilian science news agency, Agência Bori. We will analyze all press releases reporting on research articles published by Bori from 2020 onward. We will then run a quasi-experiment. The treatment group will consist of all indexed research articles developed by researchers affiliated with USP, Unicamp and Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) that are mentioned in the releases. The control group will consist of similar articles that have not been mentioned in press releases. We will also conduct in-depth interviews with authors of anticipated articles and Bori's journalists. The patterns found in the Brazilian case will be used to propose policies for strengthening public communication of Brazilian scientific research through the promotion of effective interactions between science and the press.